I know this is going to piss a lot of people off but I am a little fed up with everyone who lost their lives on Sept 11th being called a "hero" ("A Tribute To Heroes" - what the hell was THAT?). A close school-friend of mine lost her husband of 11 months in the south tower so I'm not unaffected by the tragedy (even in the UK you don't need to look very hard to find someone who knew someone etc...). But with the exception of the firefighters and a few others, those poor souls who lost their lives were VICTIMS, not HEROES. Calling ALL OF THEM heroes I think detracts from those whose actions were (on that day or any other time of trouble) genuinely heroic. It's almost like the HERO thing is being offered as a consolation prize, and there's something patronising about it, as well as the aforementioned way it detracts from those who really were heroes.

I think people are tossing around "hero" rhetorically just because we're all still so numb and we need comfort when we start to ponder the vast numbers of Americans killed in just a few hours.

There's no question the level of what we traditionally think of as 'heroism'... between a firefighter going back into the second tower after the first collapsed and say, a receptionist watching one of those jets head straight for her windowpane...is a credible difference. But in a way, they're war dead....they died on an American battlefield. I guess that's where people make the link.

Whether stockbroker or firefighter, though, they're all victims. Victims of evil men. That much is not arguable.

BA777, nice one. I won't get over seeing that shit happen on TV for years if ever. Don't want my comments above to detract from the horror of what happened, your webpage is a simple and honest expression of what we all felt and still feel. I guess the "hero" label is a defence mechanism or whatever. It still gets on my tits though!

Cedarjet, it done as a tribute to people who passed away, probably many of them died slowly, and painfully. Although it is not the correct use of the words, I feel these people do diserve an honorary title!
Iain

There's no question the level of what we traditionally think of as 'heroism'... between a firefighter going back into the second tower after the first collapsed and say, a receptionist watching one of those jets head straight for her windowpane...is a credible difference

It's not certain if any firefighters went into the north tower after the south tower collapsed. What is known is that a large number of them had assembled at about the 35th floor of the north tower, preparing to head higher up, when the south tower fell. They were ordered to get out of the tower ASAP, and just barely made it before the north tower came down.
Most FDNY (and possibly NYPD and PAPD) deaths occured when the south tower fell. It's difficult to determine whether their actions constituted heroism. Going into a burning building of course requires a lot of courage under any circumstances, but the question is whether anyone expected the tower to fall. It seems to be the consensus that the FDNY commanders (many of whom died) did believe there was a chance that the tower would come down, but thought that would not happen for several hours. So I suppose you could say that the emergency personnel who died in the south tower were acting bravely, no doubt about that, but did not realize just how great the risk really was. Can you call that heroism? I suppose that depends.
At any rate, I consider the hero-or-victim issue rather unimportant. The people who died on September 11 died tragically. It didn't matter how bravely they acted, the end result was the same.

The workers in the WTC victims/heros. Rember that many of those 3,000 plus died trying to save lives. Ditto for the Pentagon. You should've seen the video of the Pentagon employees rush back into the building to save the other workers. If it wasn't for them the toll at the Pentagon would be more than 200.

It's still amazing that thanks to those who saed lives and to those who died trying more than 30,000 got out (two thirds) and less than a 3rd didn't 3400. But had the terrorists hit an hour later or had those people not become eors there would be more deaths. Daily news and the city was predicitng over 10,000 dead. The City of NY actually oredered 30,000 body bags bercause they thoguht the toll was so high. But the city is still sorting out the duplicates.

The AP has said the the death toll was less than 3,000 Hopefully they are correct, NYC has issued over 1800 death certificates. NJ around 750.

One afternoon in late September, I was walking past a police precinct station in Manhattan. Walking behind me was a girl about eight or nine years of age, and a 40-ish man, presumably her father.
The girl asked her father about all the sheets of paper that were taped to the front of the station house. He told her they were letters thanking the police for all they did on September 11th. With the innocence only a child could have, the girl said "But why thank them? Weren't they just doing their jobs, what they had to do?"
I didn't hear Dad's reply, but when I turned around a few seconds later, he didn't look happy.

I bet she will not be seeing tv for a week But id I were him i'd show her every news and magazine photo of the WTC collapse and take her to a funeral or two of a fireman or cop and then go meet them at a firehouse or precinct. Thne she'll see why they deserve more than thanks. I personally think they all diserve raises. It irks me that a Stock brockers makes over $100,000 but a cop/firemen only gets $35,000-$40,000 and yet you don't see stockbrokers rushing into a burning building or making risky traffic stops. The emergency service personel deserves better!